Christine Mollier
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824831691
- eISBN:
- 9780824868765
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824831691.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
The tradition of the Heavenly Kitchens concerns neither culinary art, nor, strictly speaking, Chinese food. The recipes that it advocates aim at a total abstinence from food through meditational ...
More
The tradition of the Heavenly Kitchens concerns neither culinary art, nor, strictly speaking, Chinese food. The recipes that it advocates aim at a total abstinence from food through meditational practice. This chapter examines two texts that deal with Heavenly Kitchens: the Buddhist Sūtra of the Three Kitchens, Preached by the Buddha and the Taoist Scripture of the Five Kitchens. The Sūtra of the Three Kitchens, which was discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts, has been qualified as apocryphal by the canonical bibliographies since the eighth century, but it might be more accurately labeled a forgery. The Scripture of the Five Kitchens, as well as additional Taoist sources explicitly denouncing its Buddhist misappropriation, suggests that, more than just a Taoist text rewrapped in Buddhist packaging, we have here an unmistakable case of Buddhist plagiarism. In all events, the double emergence, Buddhist and Taoist, of the scriptures of the Kitchens, together with the diffusion of the apocryphal Sūtra of the Three Kitchens at Dunhuang and its exportation to Japan toward the end of the eighth century demonstrates the popularity attained by the Method of the Heavenly Kitchens during the Tang dynasty.Less
The tradition of the Heavenly Kitchens concerns neither culinary art, nor, strictly speaking, Chinese food. The recipes that it advocates aim at a total abstinence from food through meditational practice. This chapter examines two texts that deal with Heavenly Kitchens: the Buddhist Sūtra of the Three Kitchens, Preached by the Buddha and the Taoist Scripture of the Five Kitchens. The Sūtra of the Three Kitchens, which was discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts, has been qualified as apocryphal by the canonical bibliographies since the eighth century, but it might be more accurately labeled a forgery. The Scripture of the Five Kitchens, as well as additional Taoist sources explicitly denouncing its Buddhist misappropriation, suggests that, more than just a Taoist text rewrapped in Buddhist packaging, we have here an unmistakable case of Buddhist plagiarism. In all events, the double emergence, Buddhist and Taoist, of the scriptures of the Kitchens, together with the diffusion of the apocryphal Sūtra of the Three Kitchens at Dunhuang and its exportation to Japan toward the end of the eighth century demonstrates the popularity attained by the Method of the Heavenly Kitchens during the Tang dynasty.
Christine Mollier
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824831691
- eISBN:
- 9780824868765
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824831691.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This book reveals previously unexplored dimensions of the interaction between Buddhism and Taoism in medieval China. While scholars of Chinese religions have long recognized the mutual influences ...
More
This book reveals previously unexplored dimensions of the interaction between Buddhism and Taoism in medieval China. While scholars of Chinese religions have long recognized the mutual influences linking the two traditions, the book brings to light their intense contest for hegemony in the domains of scripture and ritual. It demonstrates the competition and complementarity of the two great Chinese religions in their quest to address personal and collective fears of diverse ills, including sorcery, famine, and untimely death. In this context, Buddhist apocrypha and Taoist scriptures were composed through a process of mutual borrowing, yielding parallel texts, the book argues, that closely mirrored one another. Life-extending techniques, astrological observances, talismans, spells, and the use of effigies and icons to resolve the fundamental preoccupations of medieval society were similarly incorporated in both religions. In many cases, as a result, one and the same body of material can be found in both Buddhist and Taoist guises. Through case-studies, the patterns whereby medieval Buddhists and Taoists each appropriated and transformed for their own use the rites and scriptures oftheir rivals are revealed with precision.Less
This book reveals previously unexplored dimensions of the interaction between Buddhism and Taoism in medieval China. While scholars of Chinese religions have long recognized the mutual influences linking the two traditions, the book brings to light their intense contest for hegemony in the domains of scripture and ritual. It demonstrates the competition and complementarity of the two great Chinese religions in their quest to address personal and collective fears of diverse ills, including sorcery, famine, and untimely death. In this context, Buddhist apocrypha and Taoist scriptures were composed through a process of mutual borrowing, yielding parallel texts, the book argues, that closely mirrored one another. Life-extending techniques, astrological observances, talismans, spells, and the use of effigies and icons to resolve the fundamental preoccupations of medieval society were similarly incorporated in both religions. In many cases, as a result, one and the same body of material can be found in both Buddhist and Taoist guises. Through case-studies, the patterns whereby medieval Buddhists and Taoists each appropriated and transformed for their own use the rites and scriptures oftheir rivals are revealed with precision.
